Red Sox Beat: Despite long night from Dempster, silent night for Sox

Ryan Dempster gave the depleted Red Sox what they needed. The rest of the Red Sox, however, didn’t return the favor.

By Eric Avidon/Daily News staff

Milford Daily News

By Eric Avidon/Daily News staff

Posted May. 8, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 8, 2013 at 8:03 AM

By Eric Avidon/Daily News staff

Posted May. 8, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 8, 2013 at 8:03 AM

BOSTON

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Ryan Dempster gave the depleted Red Sox what they needed.

The rest of the Red Sox, however, didn’t return the favor.

With the Boston bullpen thin from overuse and an abundance of injuries, Dempster needed to go deep into Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Twins. He did exactly that, allowing two earned runs and pitching into the eighth inning.

The Red Sox lineup, however, was unable to do anything against Scott Diamond, and poor defense and relief work turned a close game into a lopsided one, so as well as Dempster pitched the Red Sox were dealt a 6-1 loss.

"That was a very good outing by Ryan Dempster," said manager John Farrell. "Unfortunately, not much to show for it on our end."

Early in the season, the Red Sox could count on both Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz to get them to the eighth inning. It allowed them to survive shorter starts from Dempster, Felix Doubront, and either John Lackey or Alfredo Aceves.

Lately, however, Lester hasn’t been as sharp, failing to get past six innings in any of his last three starts. And Buchholz, after pitching a minimum of seven innings in his first six starts, made it through just six innings Monday night.

Prior to Tuesday night, the last time any Red Sox starter other than Buchholz pitched seven innings was Dempster on April 21, more than two weeks ago.

And with Andrew Bailey and Joel Hanrahan both on the disabled list, Junichi Tazawa forced into the closer’s role, Clayton Mortensen likely unavailable after pitching the previous two nights, Koji Uehara’s ERA on a steady rise after he didn’t allow a run in any of his first eight appearances, and Craig Breslow just back from an injury, a long night from the relief corps wasn’t an appealing option.

Only Doubront, moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen for a couple of days because of the absence of available arms, seemed a candidate to pitch more than an inning if needed.

Dempster, in a positive way, made sure there was no need for relievers to play a major role. Bad defense then made sure of it in a negative way.

Dempster (2-3) allowed two earned runs on five hits with eight strikeouts and one walk. Two runners reached against him in the eighth on errors, and both scored.

Of course even the two earned runs he allowed ultimately turned out to be too many.

The Twins’ first run came in the fifth inning, when Ryan Doumit led off with a double into the right-center field gap, moved to third on a controversial balk and scored on a single up the middle through a drawn-in infield by Wilkin Ramirez. Two innings later, Doumit homered over the Green Monster in left field.

Page 2 of 2 - "Your job as a starting pitcher is to do that," Dempster said of saving the bullpen. "I was happy with that. I just wish I could have pitched a little better and given us a chance to win the ballgame. I made a couple of mistakes that cost us a couple of runs. The way Diamond was throwing the ball and keeping us in check you knew one run would be maybe one run too many."

While Dempster was able to save the Red Sox’ relievers in case they’re needed Wednesday night when rookie Allen Webster makes his second career start, the loss was costly in another way. Catcher David Ross and third baseman Will Middlebrooks collided when Middlebrooks caught a popup in foul territory in the fifth inning.

Both initially stayed in the game, but Ross left after one batter with a left quad contusion and Middlebrooks departed after the seventh with left side pain and was taken for X-rays and a CAT scan.

Their replacements -- Pedro Ciriaco and Jarrod Saltalamacchia -- then played critical roles in the eighth when the Twins scored four runs, only one earned.

Ciriaco made errors on ground balls by both Brian Dozier and Jamey Carroll to start the inning, at which point Breslow came on in relief of Dempster.

Breslow gave up a double, walk and two singles as three runs scored. The Twins got their final run on a throwing error by Saltalamacchia.

"I come every day with the mentality to be ready, and I practice every day," said Ciriaco, "and I just missed those balls. ... I just have to forget about it and be ready for tomorrow, and next time make those plays."

As for Diamond (3-2), he was superb.

He allowed singles in each of the first three innings before setting down the last 15 batters he faced. He walked none and struck out two in seven shutout innings before turning the game over to Josh Roenicke for the last two innings.

Saltalamacchia homered to lead off the ninth, but that was all the Red Sox could muster, wasting Dempster’s strong start when he allowed Boston’s beleagured bullpen to rest and reset.

Eric Avidon can be reached at 508-626-3809 or eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericavidon.